Coffee, with legs

The good news is that the fortnight-old Black Gold Café is spacious by Bandra-café standards. Spread over three sections, including a lounge that’s not yet open to the public, but can seat up to 30 people, as well as an outdoor seating area. You can choose from hot coffees, cold coffees, shakes, teas and ‘Crown Jewels’ a section that lists café specials, including an After 8 Frappé and a Lindt Coffee.

Black gold cafe Food: good Service: attentive Ambience: average

They do salads (Caesar’s, Beansprouts, Antipasto), pizzas (Margherita and Neopolitan), savoury tarts (chicken and vegetarian) and BYOS (Build Your Own Sandwich) options. They also do Bruschetta and an Egg Nicoise — stuffed boiled egg with mustard and mayonnaise.

For the BYOS option, you can choose from four breads: Whole wheat, cheese, herb & sun-dried tomato and focaccia, five cheeses: Gouda Wasabi (Rs 150), Chilli Gouda (Rs 150), Cheddar (Rs 90), Mozzarella (Rs 80), cheese slice (Rs 20) and at least five (eggless) sauces. Toppings include stir-fried mushrooms, grilled zucchini, tomatoes, cucumber, olives, grilled chicken and pesto chicken. You can opt for a full (12-inch) or a half sandwich (6-inch) with up to three toppings. They charge extra for additional toppings.

Good to look at, good to eat We opted for a half sandwich made with herb & sun-dried tomato bread with a filling of sautéed mushrooms, grilled zucchini and cheddar (Rs 129), a non-vegetarian Neopolitan pizza (with pesto chicken) (Rs 195) and the Lindt coffee (R279), which was served on a platter with a cookie, a wafer chocolate finger and a cup of sparkling water which, we were informed, would serve as a palate cleanser, so that we would be able to better appreciate the coffee.

The sandwich and the pizza were both filling, and we were happy to note that they didn’t skimp on the toppings or the cheese. The Lindt coffee is easily among the better coffees that we have had: Voluptuous and laced with generous amounts of bitter chocolate.

Eye for detail From the choice of colour scheme (cream and brown) to the furniture (wooden chairs with teacup-shaped backs) and pieces of art on the glass shelves, it would be fair to assume that a degree of thought has gone into creating the look of the main café.

Having said that the wide space between the couch and the table meant that we had to awkwardly lean forward each time we wanted a sip of coffee, or bite of food. Also, a wobbly table and an errant, but persistent fly, meant that this was not the relaxed coffee break that we were hoping for.

We were assured that they are working on getting rid of the flies, but we’re not sure what they can do about the furniture. We also hope that they will place some reading material that is actually worth flipping through in their ‘open library’. Can we put the unpleasant parts of our experience down to teething trouble? We hope so!

If you decide to drop by within the next fortnight, keep in mind that they don’t accept cards yet, so remember to take some cash, a pillow and a fly swatter along.